Gosh how sensitive some people are about opinions in blogs.
My blog is a self-confessed mixture of news about our life here in Cyprus, advice (over the years) for people wishing to follow in our footsteps - sadly much more difficult after the insanity of Brexit - and some occasionally acerbic observations relating to UK politicians of all political persuasions. My opinions are just that - opinions. Standard advice is always if you don’t like my opinions, try reading someone else’s blog instead.
That’s the great thing about my blog - it’s mine and nobody has any right to criticise it. I know full well not to libel anyone. Some years ago a friend took me to task about an opinion I expressed about the Greek Orthodox Church here in Cyprus. He had a point, which I acknowledged in the blog and that was that. Polite, civilised and neither of us were upset by his intervention.
At the present time my blog has been visited over 83,000 times since I started writing it. I make the not unreasonable assumption that I must be doing something right. It’s all about choice - mine and yours.
I may have mentioned I am diabetic. The specialist looking after me asked me to visit an ophthalmologist to have my eyes checked for any damage. Ann had visited a very good ophthalmologist in Paphos but I wanted to avoid yet another drive there. I asked for advice at Polis Medical Centre and the wonderfully helpful Mary recommended Dr Katerina Stylianidou in Polis. I made an appointment with her under GESY. What an inspirational and gentle lady. I spent an hour with her. Her expertise and professionalism was so reassuring. Everything was explained. The only problem she found was the beginnings of cataracts in both eyes, which would eventually require intervention. No surprise there at my age. €6 well spent. If you need to see an ophthalmologist I highly recommend her.
The storm in the teacup to which I referred to related to me passing an opinion on a local pub. Briefly I stated “…our two subsequent visits were not auspicious. No doubt time will tell.” Not auspicious means not favourable or not conducive to success. And then the next sentence states unequivocally that time will tell.
And that, dear reader, is what I meant. I bear no ill will to the bar, its new managers or its customers. I passed an honestly held opinion. Good luck to the bar in the future. It would be lovely to see it flourish.
Running a pub is no cakewalk as Ann and I know. In England we ran a village pub together, then I took on an incredibly busy vodka bar in the Old Town in Hastings. After that Ann managed a large hotel, and I ran the bar and was a general dogsbody. None of it would have been possible without the intense training we received at the hands of Greene King. Without that training we would have been the worst of all things - amateurs in a competitive and busy world.
And that is that for today.
For a different point of view on our life here, you might enjoy Ann’s blog “Further Musings from a Cyprus Garden” which you can find at
